Deaconjanuary - Things in home brewing keep changing. Read lots of stuff on this forum for solid information, especially about BIAB. This is where it is done, not just talked about.

Hello, Corne. We enjoyed some great beers in Amsterdam and Haarlem not too long ago. When you start to buy equipment for brewing, read some posts on this forum. You can start brewing beer with less expense and less equipment by brewing all grain batches using BIAB. Ask questions, you will get answers. I have s 38.4 L kettle and I do not think I will need more than that. Scott will encourage you to get a bigger kettle (56.8 L). Some things you must decide for yourself.

Greetings to Sk3pt1c. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania might be known for Iron City Beer, but you don’t have to make that at home. Read, read, read. A long brew day and two weeks of fermentation might save an hour of reading time to learn the same thing. Ask question, too.

Hey I am from the Hunter Valley in NSW, Have mainly been a partial mash brewer and some AG with BIAB on a mates system and some on My Grainfather I used to own.
Have just bought a new BIAB setup after not brewing for a little over a year

Planning my kit list and first brew so still researching before making any purchases. I really want to keep things simple at first before hopefully going down the "tinkering with equipment" road. I've acquired a 35L SS stock pot but really only plan on producing 10L batches (to be bottled). This is for reasons of wanting to learn quickly by carrying out multiple regular brews, and being more interested in quality over quantity. I can always scale up to produce a bigger batch of some master creation if the time comes ;-) Anyway, looking forward to my journey of learning, and to hopefully be able to advice newcomers on the forum sometime in the future!

Just now adding my introduction post so I can hopefully become a contributing member of this community.

I have been homebrewing for almost 10 years now, and have had/built many different brewing systems. I am in the process of downsizing my life and so I am trying to sell my current rig, a 2 vessel, flexible eRims BIAB / Brutus 20 counter circulation set up with a 2 PID controller. It has been my pride and joy for the last few years, but she takes up a large footprint.

I will be replacing it with a eBIAB built around a 15g SS BrewTech and Boil coil.

I am what I like to call a "Displaced Texan" I currently live in Colorado, with no signs of moving....I was in the US Army for 20 years and just recently retired from Service.
I am on my back to school next month for Computer Science, and just moved into a new house.

I also like to smoke cigars, play Cornhole, and cook meat on open flames......

I found you guys while looking for BIABcalculators, to help me get started.
Currently researching Full Volume vs. Dunk sparging, and trying to decide it I want to add the extra step.

I hope to become a helpful member here, and look forward to learning new things

TMX - Thank you for your service! As for the things you are currently researching, I recommend going the full volume mash route. If you search around this site you should be able to find lots of reasons why. Simpler to get good results. PistolPatch has written about that quite extensively.

Sounds like all of you are on the right path. If questions you can’t find an answer for, post a new question in the BIAB for New Brewers section and one of will be along to assist. And let us know how it goes....

Welcome to the forum, Dory Rules. There’s a lot to learn and do before you get to beer. Read before buying equipment so that you get what will work for you. Visualize yourself doing each step.
Clear Brewing Terminology will help us communicate and get the BIABacus to set up your recipe for your kit. Search those topics in the search field in the upper right side and ask questions. It will take some time, but you will get to beer.

I share with you my Info :-)
Thanks for a wonderful forum, hope to learn a lot with you.

1. Where are you from? - Valencia - Spain
2. How did you stumble across the site? Searching BIAB info on the net
3. What you think of it so far? Amazing - So much content...
4. Have you brewed at all before. If so, for how long and what method are you currently using? I´ve done 7 batches so far, the last 4 of them with the BIAB (Single vessel)
5. Do you work? Are you retired or maybe you run a household? Yes, as en Engineer and capoeira teacher.

My name is Keelan and I'm a kit brewer (the shame!). I've been able to product good quality via the kit/extract method but am having trouble with the amount and struggling to justify more brew days when I've 20l of okay beer to be drank. So I'm looking at moving to smaller stove-top BIAB.

This forum came highly recommended and I can see why. Looking forward to getting involved with the community here and learning some new tricks and tips.

@Pinchons: Great to have another member from Europe, thanks for your Valencia oranges and congratulations on the brews you've done so far . Also read my last sentences below...

@kilo_folio: Keelan and welcome aboard. No shame in kit beers. Two of the most outstanding beers I've ever had were from kits although I never had any luck with them. (Those two beers were fermented at really high temps with the yeast that came with them and maybe that is what I missed?)

Whilst I'm glad to hear the forum came highly recommended, finding the right information is not anywhere near as easy as it is planned to be in future so, for now, just dive in and ask any questions you have and someone will be sure to help you out.

Hope some of us can help you and/or you can help others along, PP

If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!

@Pinchons: Great to have another member from Europe, thanks for your Valencia oranges and congratulations on the brews you've done so far . Also read my last sentences below...

Whilst I'm glad to hear the forum came highly recommended, finding the right information is not anywhere near as easy as it is planned to be in future so, for now, just dive in and ask any questions you have and someone will be sure to help you out.

Hope some of us can help you and/or you can help others along, PP

Thank you very much @Pistolpatch jejejejje I´m glad you enjoy our oranges..
To be honest, I´ve realised today that our local dealer gave us the recepies with the wrong proportions, cause he always gives us the materials for an Old School All Grain (with Sparge & so on) process, and we always end up with wrong proportions. Now that I´ve found the biabacus I´ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel!! But I´m struggling to be able to introduce all the Info that the BIABacus needs. I´m trying to find kind of a 101 guide of the Excel Sheet but didn´t find one (You know what I mean, the dummies version: 1- Put Kettle dimension, 2- PUt ingredients...) Or maybe it would be easier to put the last recipe we cooked and have someone translate it to the Biabacus, what do you think?
Thanks in advance

Regards & Cheers!

Last edited by Pinchons on 18 Jun 2018, 22:43, edited 1 time in total.

The BIABacus is frightening to look at when you first see it. The reason for that is because pretty much everything any type of brewer could need is on a single sheet. This was done for educational purposes. Ideally, we'd like the BIABacus user interface to be totally flexible so the user can see just the bits that they need depending on their circumstances. (The things I'd like to do to the BIABacus would probably take a few hundred hours though and I'm out of hours atm . Add another thousand or two for what to do with the site )

There is no clear guide atm unfortunately so what you suggest above is best... "put the last recipe we cooked and have someone translate it to the Biabacus."

The biggest problem with recipes is that they usually don't come with enough information or, the information is ambiguous. You'll see this by reading a few of the "stickies" in this forum that contain the word, "integrity."

Because you know what you last brewed, that's great! So, I think fill out Sections A, B, C and D of the BIABacus as best as you can (don't worry if you don't know what to do on everything) and then post up your file either to the thread I mentioned above or to your own new thread. We'll see it and it won't take long to get you sorted
(Mind you, I'm off to bed now!) PP

If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!

New York checking in here. Relatively new to brewing but have been making wine for over 20+ years. Stumbled upon your site from another form as a great resource for BIAB. As I am a BIAB brewer, figured I should check this place out. Was pointed to BIABicus to help me improve my efficiencies

I've been brewing for about a year now, started with extract and now using BIAB. I'm a cook in a brewery/bar/grill in Cleveland, OH. Heard of this site from the homebrewing Reddit and really like the wealth of information and community here. I'm always trying to learn more about the brewing process and this site seems like a great resource.

@pegthebeast : There is a lot of excellent info here but it can be very hard to find. A re-structure of the site and lots of writing is scheduled but until then just dive in and ask any questions you have.

@derekzoolander and @Demarispa: I'm going to block out a few days to write some comprehensive info on "efficiency." The reality is that you probably have no "efficiency" problems and your problems lie more in what you have been led to believe "efficiency" is. The post I just wrote should make you realise you are not alone on being bewildered by "efficiency."

I've just made a note to PM you both when I have the thread written.

Until then, you three keep The Donald under control and I'll keep an eye on our cricket team ,
PP

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Hi all. I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. Many craft breweries AND home brewers here. I have brewed 5 batches so far, 1 bad one with expired extract, 3 good BIAB and one not so good BIAB. I went straight from extract to BIAB on recommendation of my son, who was working at a homebrew shop at the time. So I had lots of help. As I have many questions and want to have help sometimes, I searched and found this site. Good so far.

I have not brewed for a couple of years, but will again. This weekend. Using abacus, and perplexed, but still a few days left to plan and shop.

All-grain is much more forgiving than extract. That's great your son was in a home brew shop . There is a lot of quality on this site but it can be very hard to find under the current layout. Until the new layout happens, don't battlw with any perplexity too much, just dive in and ask your questions and someone will help you out.

Especially try and get your planned BIABacus checked before you brew/shop just in case there is a hiccough in your plan.

All the best,
PP

If you have found the above or anything else of value on BIABrewer.info, consider supporting us by getting some BIPs!

Hello Everyone,
I am from California in the USA and I, like many others it seems , came from a post on Homebrewtalk.com while looking for additional information on BIAB.
I far I have high hopes for this site and am looking for a good place to come hang out and learn more in my pursuit of a perfect beer. I am recently back into brewing after a ten or so year hiatus, I am now just realizing how much I truly enjoyed the entire process of making my own beer. Well except the time waiting for the new beer to condition, that part could be better. I am currently newly employed with a law firm in my area, Thank you everybody in advance for the information, friendship and kindness.

Im from Nova Scotia, Canada, and have been brewing for many years now. Ive been out of the game now for about a year as Ive moved into a new house and am in the process of dedicating a spot for brewing. I have yet to use the BIA method but gearing up for that now, as well as electric brewing, just had my pot ported and pick myself up a nice 4500w element and I'm now creating my controller. Lots of new stuff! In the past I've always done BestCase kits and back in the day just the ole can of malt. Ive been involved with some AG brews and thinking BIA is my next step to making some great beer!

I have a friend on here to told me I should check it out, was told lots of good people and good info. Currently work full time, as well i have youngsters running around so brewing inside with electric is the way to go now for me.

Look forward to chatting with everyone and sharing some ideas and recipes.

Greetings, Spiker from Nova Scotia. Not so far from Connecticut on a map, but Halifax takes forever to get to by land.
There's a section of the forum on electric brewing and you will find good info there. https://www.biabrewer.info/viewforum.php?f=24
AG brewing in your new house will be exciting. Kids like munching on grains before you add them - watch out.
Do keep us posted on your experiences.

I'm Mike, based in Wales, UK. I've been brewing on and off (but mainly off unfortunately) for 3-4 years. I had previously done about 5 x 1 gallon all-grain batches on my stove but found I wasn't quite getting enough beer for the effort. I then had a kid which seemed to take away any free time for a couple of years! Getting back into it I was looking for a way of increasing the amount of beer I got to make it a little bit more worthwhile for the time put in. After a lot of reading decided BIAB might be the way forward.

I did my first mini-BIAB a few weeks back. Being my first attempt it took a while longer than I was hoping (but with plenty of scope for knocking time off) but was a pretty simple process. Bottled over double the amount I was before so definitely more time efficient than my old ways. The finished product tastes alright which is the important thing! Came across this site while looking for ways of improving my brewday. Looks like a great resource so thanks for (hopefully) having me!